UIW won't build its med school downtown

UIW President Lou Agnese had estimated the cost to start a medical school at Fox Tech would be around $50 million, including $25 million for construction.

Photo: File photo, San Antonio Express-News

SAN ANTONIO — Unable to secure major corporate contributions to make real President Lou Agnese's vision of an osteopathic medical school at Fox Tech High School downtown, the University of the Incarnate Word has pulled the plug on it.

That site would have been the most expensive of UIW's three location options, which include Brooks City Base and the university's own building near the South Texas Medical Center.

However, its downtown development potential and educational impact were promising enough to attract help from the city and Bexar County and a partnership with San Antonio Independent School District.

Agnese had estimated the cost to start a medical school at Fox Tech to be around $50 million, including $25 million for construction. The other two locations wouldn't require major private donors — in part because they have existing buildings to house the school.

The university still intends to enroll its first class of medical students by August 2016.

Agnese was on sabbatical in Bangkok and unavailable for comment Tuesday. UIW Chancellor Denise Doyle said the university has to submit a study in early May to the Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation, including the location of the medical school and a representation of what it will look like, to gain preliminary accreditation.

“We had only a limited amount of time to put together the financing for the Fox Tech school, and — with this pressure to get a decision — we have had to let go of the possibility of Fox Tech,” she said. “Initially, we saw the medical school as being such a good opportunity for San Antonio that we imagined, perhaps, that (securing) the funding for it would be easier than it has been.”

After receiving inquiries from the San Antonio Express-News, the university issued an afternoon news release acknowledging it wouldn't move forward on its lease agreement with SAISD.

“Building at this location has always depended upon significant private donations over a relatively short time-frame,” the release said. “With this in mind, UIW has done due diligence to explore the feasibility of building at that downtown location and has recently decided against pursuing this option.”

The university is considering its two other options, Doyle confirmed.

Ed Garza, president of the SAISD board of trustees, said university officials informed the district's superintendent of the decision and said they now were interested in pursuing the second option at Brooks City Base.

Brooks president and CEO Leo Gomez said his organization is “committed to making sure that San Antonio gets this medical school.”

The comprehensive proposal Brooks submitted last August still is valid and can be tweaked “in short order” to meet UIW's accreditation timeline, he said.

Brooks once housed an Air Force school of aerospace medicine and still has facilities that could be used for a medical school. And both Gomez and Garza said the Brooks site would allow UIW to continue its academic partnership with SAISD because that campus is within the school district.

Gomez noted that Mission Trail Baptist Hospital also is on Brooks City Base and could offer opportunities for students at a nearby medical school.

The city and county worked at unusually high speed to approve incentives for the Fox Tech proposal.

Last fall, San Antonio committed $7.7 million for infrastructure improvements there. Mike Frisbie, director of the city's Transportation and Capital Improvements Department, said the city had not yet done any of the work.

University officials also had to race to obtain donations because of the timeline they placed on themselves — but cultivating relationships to raise money takes time, said Centro Partnership CEO Pat DiGiovanni, who helped broker the deal between SAISD and UIW. Those seeking funding have to match up with a donor's mission, goals and objectives.

Fox Tech has downsized in recent years, becoming a health professions and pre-law magnet high school. The medical school had been proposed on its unused athletic fields. Garza said he was certain the site would be developed at some point.

“From our perspective, it's still a valuable piece of property,” he said. “And we feel confident there will be other opportunities for that site in the future — opportunities that would benefit the school district as well as downtown.”